[Skimmertalk] new red pitaya

[Bob Wilson, N6TV]

On Mon, Jun 3, 2019 at 2:46 PM Andy KU7T <ku7t at ku7t.org> wrote:

> How good is it compared to the old pitaya or QSR1 (SNR difference, more
> spots, …)?
>
I little bit better SNR, but the main advantage is 16 192 kHz slices vs. 8
max with the old board, plus no need for a 14:1 Impedance Transformer.  I
will say at first pass the new board seemed to be reading signals 1 S-Unit
LESS than the old board, feeding both from the same antenna/preamp via a
passive splitter.  But the noise level was reduced even more, so the S/N
went up.

> Do we still need a preamp for higher bands?
>
In theory, no, but I think I'll keep mine in line anyway as my VE3DO loop
isn't very sensitive above 40m.

> Are you running it currently at N6TV-#?
>
Not yet.  Soon.  I just did brief standalone testing.  I have to do some
reconfiguration to move the new board to my old case.

I do wish the RBN Aggregator could be enhanced to auto-start two
independent instances of CW Skimmer Server, something that is required to
make full use of all 16 slices of the new board.  Skimmer Server /
HermestIntf only permits 8 bands max per instance, so you need two
instances, each connecting to a different MAC address.  Aggregator can only
start one CW Skimmer Server.   I always have to start the second one
manually.

73,
Bob, N6TV

>